This was posted 1 year 2 months 24 days ago, and might be an out-dated deal.

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ASUS RT-AX68U Wi-Fi 6 Dual Band Gigabit Router (3x3 Support, AiMesh) US$104.64 (~NZ$177.52) Delivered @ Amazon US

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Nice router with support for Aimesh. Clip $19 coupon to bring the total down to $104.64 delivered. Discount price reflected on final checkout.

About this item

  • High Efficiency WiFi 6 - Enjoy fast speeds up to 2700 Mbps with WiFi 6 (802.11ax)
  • Commercial-grade Network Security – Lifetime free ASUS AiProtection Pro, powered by Trend Micro, with WPA3 to protect your home
  • 3More Privacy, Anywhere - Instant Guard gives you one-click secure internet access via RT-AX68U from anywhere in the world
  • Parental Controls for All Ages - Customize settings for different age groups, giving your kids the internet access they need
  • ASUS AiMesh Support – Create a flexible, seamless whole-home mesh network with AiMesh-compatible routers
Price History at C CamelCamelCamel.

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closed Comments

  • is this better than the AX3000?

  • +5

    That NZD/USD exchange rate hurts…

  • For those of you playing at home, ASUS are one of the brands that offers VPN capability, and a free internal DDNS option (xxx.asuscomm.com) which are assigned and setup within the router without any personal details or anything needed. The latter of which is excellent for cheaping out on a static IP.

    So any ASUS router is good for running servers and managing them both in and out of the home at a hobby level.

    • what is that for? webhosting from home?

      • Urgh I typed out a massive response, then hit Post Comment, got a Red error message saying "a field is required" and it was gone.

        Not typing it out again, Google it.

        • my loss lol, what should i search for? i will chatgpt it

          • @justaddwater: Probably "self-hosting" and "RDP to computer at home"

            • @danvelopment: thanks, will see if i can figure out. if you hit back button, and go back a page, is what you typed still gone?

              • @justaddwater: Yep. Page reloaded, all comments were gone (didn't load), the description was there, and the error was there. So I couldn't post again without hitting back or refreshing.

                Refreshing wouldn't ever work on post data, so I hit back.

    • Just want to point out that a lot of TP-Link routers have both of these included as well.

  • +1

    This also supports Merlin wrt. So it will have future updates in case Asus stops it

  • what fibre speed is this good for? 300mb/s? 1000 mb/s?

    this or a wifi 6e router?

    • +2

      I don't think you should bother with 6e. Do you even have a 6e device or plan to buy one in near future?

      You should consider this points,
      1. Range. Do u need mesh? This one can be an excellent node in Aimesh
      2. No. of devices
      3. Type of devices, wifi 5, 6, 6e etc.
      4. Do you have smart home devices which only works on 2.4ghz? can they work on a combined network or needs a separate 2.4ghz network.

      Coming to your question, this one is great for 300mb/s. For 1000 mb/s should be fine depending on how many devices are connected and at what speed they will be on. In general it should be fine for couple of 4k streams and 15-20 devices connected.

      • Thank you. I am not up to speed with new router tech. Its happening too fast

        Just dont wanna buy this and find out im getting 200 mbs thoroughput out of my 1000 mbs fibre ya know

  • +1

    Had a Asus RT-AC88U many many years ago running Merlin firmware. Was a great router and VPN on it was fast and took less than a second to connect every single time.

    But a few years ago I swapped to the Xiaomi AX6000 router for $150 NZD, got it from Aliexpress. Haven't had issues with either router, but I would say that the performance on my Xiaomi router is a lot better. I can still get signal and stay connected to it (on 5Ghz btw, which has a weaker signal than 2.4) while I'm across the street opposite my house. While it doesn't offer as many features as my Asus, the performance itself is really good and you can set it up as a mesh as well, although I don't use mesh.

    I'd say to wait for a 6e router at this point.

  • +1

    ordered one, who's got/getting one?

  • +1

    Be mindful that ASUS had a big oopsie with their routers this year, it rendered my WiFi 6 router inoperable as it would constantly cap out its RAM.

    May not be an issue with this model, but it pays to check before buying.

    https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/hardware/asus-routers-…

    https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2023/05/asus-…

    I do not know if they ever fixed it, I would assume future deployed firmware versions will NOT update your brand new router to the bad patch, but between this controversy and how ASUS Handled their Motherboards literally lighting 7800x3D chips on fire earlier this year (by refusing initially to honor warranties) Im steering clear of the brand.

  • +1

    I have a parallel imported ASUS RT-AX3000 and I can't change the regional settings, meaning I'm stuck with low power and channels that are not compatible in NZ. There is a selection in the user-interface for region, but it doesn't include NZ. I tried flashing different firmware and changing settings via commands to no avail. Be aware tha US, Canada, Australia and China have different radio regulations, with NZ being rather permissive, so my recommendation is NOT to buy WiFi routers from overseas unless you know for sure that the radio settings are not hardcoded.

    • How do you check if this?

      Where did you buy the Ax3000 from?

    • I have Asus router from US and no issues here. Even 2 of my friends bought an asus & tp-link and no issues there either.

      Only thing I heard/seen is UK have restrictions.

      How is even Australia having different regulations then NZ? as almost everyone sells the same hardware between AU/NZ.

      • +1

        Yes, it will work, but the radio power and channels are set to what's allowed in the US/UK/AU. There are differences between AU and NZ radio licensing including different power levels (mostly lower power in AU and higher power is allowed in NZ). In most cases you won't have a problem, but if you have a lot of interference from your neighbours (eg. suburban infill and apartments) or you have a large area to cover (eg. lifestyle block), then that's when things are starting to become muddled up. Also, have you ever wondered how occassionaly you can see that wifi from a neighbour 300m or more down the road - it's probably that they're using wrong channel / power setting (or directional antenna - which is OK)… And theoretically you can be prosecuted for using wrong channels / power settings by RSM. Here's some useful information: https://help.gowifi.co.nz/support/solutions/articles/4800095… and have a look at the RSM guidance on the 5ghz spectrum - that PDF (Guidance on the use of 5 GHz devices [PDF, 1.5 MB]) really shows that this stuff matters: https://www.rsm.govt.nz/business-individuals/guidance-for-wi…. Lastly, this guy has done some great work collating the different 2.4ghz channel/power licensing in different countries - and you can clearly see that they do differ between countries, and not just regions - note that I already found discrepancies between what is listed there and what is really allowed by RSM in NZ - https://w.wol.ph/2015/08/28/maximum-wifi-transmission-power-…

        • Interesting info. Thanks.

          Looking at it, my assumption is below which might be correct as the articles mentioned above are few years old and hopefully nothing has changed. So buying from US seems fine rather then AU. Now that puts buying from Amazon in question? If you say it's illegal wonder how retailers are managing this.

          NZ > AU
          NZ = US

          • @ace310: In terms of power - mostly yes, but in terms of channels that you're allowed to use - no. Americas avoid channels 12 & 13 on 2.4ghz, it gets more complicated in the 5ghz spectrum (some channels are allowed indoors only, others are only allowed if you're far away from a metservice rain radar…), and then if you add into consideration what channel width (bandwidth) you're allowed to use, there is almost no overlap between countries. Here's more info I found: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_WLAN_channels and the RSM link to the actual license is here: https://www.rsm.govt.nz/licensing/frequencies-for-anyone/sho…

            And in terms of legality, I'm not sure if it's legal to sell/buy - I'm pretty sure it is legal, but it's definitely illegal to transmit on the frequencies without a license (and the free license above doesn't cover all the AU, US, EU or CN channels or has different power restrictions)

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